Ferrari 599GTB HY-KERS Hybrid Concept

Start getting used to the idea of hybrid Ferraris—they're the wave of the company's future.

When last we wrote about the Ferrari 599 hybrid, we called it a car that no enthusiast had asked for. While that may be true at the moment, it looks as though a hybrid will be the Ferraristi’s choice of the future, as the other option would likely be no Ferrari at all. On a recent trip to Maranello, we were given a look at the 599 hybrid concept making its public debut at the Geneva auto show as well as an overview of how Ferrari plans to keep making cars in an increasingly strict future.

F1’s Ill-Fated KERS to the Rescue

The hardware portion of the 599 hybrid is relatively simple—for a gas-electric car, anyway. After looking at several options, including an all-wheel-drive layout using an electric motor to drive the front wheels, Ferrari has decided that a setup using one motor integrated into its seven-speed dual-clutch transmission offers the best balance of weight, complexity, and performance. And so the hybridized 599 concept has a modified version of the Getrag dual-clutch gearbox found in the 458 Italia and the California with a 100-hp motor hanging off the back; the motor is hooked to the shaft used for the odd-numbered gears. Two lithium-ion battery packs with a combined 3-kWh capacity are located under the chassis, where they help to lower the center of gravity without disturbing underbody airflow. One of Ferrari’s many goals was to keep the interior package untouched when hybridizing, so the control electronics sit below the trunk floor, and they’re displayed in the concept under a see-through panel. The system’s weight, about 175 pounds in its current form, will have to be compensated for by a reduction in overall vehicle size and mass. (Cutting weight should be easier for Ferrari than a lesser carmaker, as a premium manufacturer can more readily integrate higher-cost, lighter materials such as carbon fiber and aluminum.) Ferrari’s engineers note that the hybrid setup will work on both its front- and rear-engined vehicles.

Formula 1 fans will remember that Ferrari experimented with KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems) during the 2009 season. KERS is out of F1 for 2010, but experience from last year has informed the development of control logic for the concept’s hybrid system, which is at once performance-oriented and fuel-efficient. Like any full hybrid, the 599 concept can operate in electric-only mode at low speeds and can recharge the batteries through regenerative braking. Charging can also be effected through what Ferrari calls “load point moving,” which essentially alters engine speed to a more efficient point and uses the electric motor as a generator to store the extra power. There’s also a so-called “e-boost” mode that, like every hybrid ever, combines the internal-combustion and electric power for added performance; Ferrari claims improved acceleration performance compared to the nonhybrid 599, even with the concept’s added weight.

Technology Can Be Wonderful

Electronic Brake Balance (EBB) is also in the bag of tricks, and it can use the electric motor’s regenerative qualities to fine-tune brake bias to maximize stopping power and in turn reduce stopping distance or to recover the most energy possible, depending on the situation (the F1 team was able to choose one option or the other for each track). The electronic traction control gets a redesign with the hybrid system, allowing it to use the electric motor to manage excess torque instead of having to cut engine spark. The company says the traction control is thus smoother and reacts more quickly. Along the same lines, Ferrari has what it calls Electronic Torque Shaping (ETS), which can use the electric motor to add torque and smooth out the peaks and valleys inherent in torque curves of internal-combustion engines.

It Can’t Come Soon Enough

Now that we know the details, we’re less upset about the prospect of an electrified prancing horse. But Ferrari says that hybridizing its lineup will take a while, and likely won’t happen until the vehicles are replaced or redesigned. So it will be years before we see a hybridized Ferrari for sale.

The most refreshing part about all of this is that Ferrari makes no attempt to greenwash its efforts to make hybrids; there are no claims that these cars will save the world, Prius-style, from impending doom, nor do the engineers hide the fact that they’re simply building to the regulations. (The company does have as part of its Formula Uomo—Formula “Man” or “Mankind”—program a new sustainable energy plan that’s already being implemented across the Maranello campus. You can read more about that in our blog.)

The Future of Ferrari

Indeed, the Ferrari engineers with whom we met plainly stated that hybridization is the only way the company can make cars that improve on their predecessors’ performance and, just as important, meet new emissions standards both here in the U.S. and in Europe. If it doesn’t meet emissions targets, Ferrari will have to pay hefty fines or simply not sell cars. The standards are tight: By 2015, all mass-market cars sold in the European Union will need to emit fewer than 130 grams of CO2 per kilometer, although the target for small-volume manufacturers, which includes Ferrari, has not yet been finalized. Our own fuel-economy standards will require a 35-mpg average for manufacturer lineups by 2020. Ferrari’s newest and most efficient offering, the 458 Italia, emits 307 g/km on the European efficiency cycle, and it gets 11 mpg in the city and 15 on the highway in EPA tests.

The fact is that Ferrari owners don’t drive their cars all that much, and the company says that when they do—this sounds a bit bizarre—they’re often driving them in a more-efficient range of operation than seen during low-speed emissions tests. So while Ferraris aren’t purchased for their fuel mileage, the cars’ carbon footprints, as we’ve said in the past, are effectively smaller than those of hybrid commuter cars; Ferrari claims a 458’s real-world CO2 emissions are more like 250 g/km. But the regulations don’t care.

Ferrari has a few ideas of how to improve those numbers in the near term. The California will get an optional engine stop/start system in Europe at the end of this month. Strides have been made and will continue in the areas of aerodynamic drag, transmission efficiency, combustion efficiency, and the reduction of friction and pumping losses. The company’s engineers are also planning to implement cylinder deactivation and downsized engines somewhere down the road.

But all of that won’t be enough to reach the as-yet-undetermined targets, and that’s where hybrids come in. Mostly because it seems we don’t have a choice, we say bring on the electrified prancing horses.